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My cat has severe cough and diarrhea. Why isn't his medicine working?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | American Shorthair | Male | unneutered | 4 months and 24 days old

My cat Ozzy has been sick for almost 2week now. He keep coughing as tho we wants sth to get out from his throat, other times the cough sounds like he's chocking and needs to find air ti breath. He also has severe diarrhea. I gave him a deworming medicine 2days ago but I don't see improvement. Also, I've put him on some 10day antibiotics since yesterday as adviced by the over the counter vet. My questions: How long do deworming medicine take to work? What exactly is he suffering from? How can

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Sarah Derksen, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on January 29th, 2018

Hi. Poor Ozzy. First, there isn't such thing as an over the counter veterinarian, so I'm not sure what you mean by that. No antibiotics can be prescribed without an exam. Over the counter worm medication may not work as well as ones prescribed by your veterinarian. If it's been 2 weeks, it would have worked by now. This could mean it is something other then parasites, or in addition to parasites. A cough in a kitty usually is caused by an upper respiratory infection, cardiac disease, asthma, heartworm disease, or parasites (not gotten by the dewormer). If it is an upper respiratory infection and the antibiotics were appropriately prescribed for Ozzy, then it would mean it's a viral upper respiratory infection. Ozzy will need to be seen for a cough of that duration and diarrhea. We don't know the cause here without an exam and diagnostics.

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